BALTIMORE, MD (RAILFAN JOURNAL) – The race on August 28, 1830, between Peter Cooper’s diminutive Tom Thumb locomotive and the horse-drawn Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad car demonstrated the superiority of steam power.
Though the gallant horse won eventually when mechanical failure stopped the locomotive, the Tom Thumb had led the race, rounding curves at 15 miles an hour.
The B&O, America’s first common carrier railroad, was organized when Baltimore began to lose business to New York’s Erie Canal. Because steam locomotives were experimental, the B&O intended to use horses. But failure to make expenses, and the lack of success of wind-driven sailing cars and horse-powered treadmill cars, opened the way for Peter Cooper’s plan for steam power.
All horses on the B&O Railroad were replaced by steam locomotives on July 31, 1831.
Tom Thumb, constructed by Peter Cooper in 1829, holds the distinction of being the inaugural American-crafted steam locomotive to grace the tracks of a common-carrier railroad.
Its primary mission was to sway the minds of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) proprietors, now known as CSX, towards embracing steam-powered engines. Remarkably, its introduction into revenue service was never on the agenda.
One of its most iconic moments was its involvement in an epic showdown against a horse-drawn carriage, a contest ultimately claimed by the horse due to Tom Thumb’s mechanical hiccup in Relay, Maryland.
Nevertheless, this spectacle effectively demonstrated the potential of steam locomotion, prompting the railroad to commit to the utilization of steam engines. Subsequently, they conducted trials in the ensuing year to evaluate the performance of operational locomotives.
In the earliest days of railroads, these rudimentary systems consisted of little more than road-bound tracks. Wagons and carriages were hauled by horses, their wheels suitably adapted to glide along these rails. The concept of steam-powered locomotion remained unattainable until the development of locomotives that could be mounted on wheels.
The initial steam locomotives were a product of England, the birthplace of steam power, and the first locomotives to traverse American soil were imported from England. However, this foreign reliance spurred Americans to envision and craft locomotives of their own.
Because Tom Thumb was not intended for revenue service, the locomotive was not preserved.